Our Forest

Ecologists group plants and trees usually found together into communities.  These plant communities are the different kinds of "forests" on the Reservation.  These forests differ from site to site because of variations in sunlight, moisture, soil type, and climate.  Plants with similar site requirements usually live together.  Animals that find the food and shelter they like will make use of the community in order to live. Several different kinds of "forest" exist on the Reservation.  These forest types vary from site to site, but the trees and plants you can expect to find on any one site are predictable.

Due to its location at the northern cusp of the transitional "tension zone" which divides the state's central hardwood forest from the northern hardwood forest, the Menominee forest contains a higher diversity of tree species than forests found either to its north or south.  The diversity is demonstrated by the fact that twelve forest habitat types and two phases have been identified in the range of upland sites on this relatively small patch of forest.

The dominant forest cover types include northern hardwoods, hemlock hardwoods, mid-tolerant hardwoods, pine stands (jack,white,red), aspen, scrub oak, and swamp forest.

The Menominee Forest contains some thirty-three tree species:  hard maple, eastern hemlock, eastern white pine, red oak, basswood, yellow birch, aspen (bigtooth and quaking), cedar, soft maple, pin oak, white birch, beech, ash (black and white), red pine, white spruce, black cherry, balsam poplar, white oaks, hickory, jack pine, tamarack, balsam fir, black spruce, and butternut.

Even from Space, the success of the
Menominee's sustained yield policy
is evident.  Satellite images of Northeast
Wisconsin clearly show the outline of
 the Menominee Forest.